Friday, April 22, 2011

A chart representing ideas from the very useful and insightful conclusion to Andrew Cornell's new book, Oppose and Propose!, on the Movement for a New Society

Movement for a New Society (MNS) was a national network of feminist radical pacifist collectives that existed in the US from 1971 to 1988. They pioneered forms of consensus decision making, communal living, direct action, and self-education that shaped and are central to many current struggles. Although they decided to "lay the organization down" in '88, many of MNS' former members continue to be active. The history, recent interviews, past documents and (especially) conclusions that Cornell draws from his "militant coresearch" with MNS in the newly released Oppose and Propose! provide us with much needed lessons for how we think about and do leadership, movement building, counterculture, and prefigurative politics today.

If you haven't already ordered or otherwise acquired a copy of the book, and aren't yet convinced you should, check out this article Cornell wrote on MNS while doing his research. I breezed through this book and look forward to discussing it with my closest compas. Highly recommended!

Monday, April 11, 2011

Struggle is par for the course when our dreams go into action. But unless we have the space to imagine, and a vision to realize our humanity, all the protests and demonstrations in the world won't bring about our liberation. -Robin D.G. Kelley, Freedom Dreams

With Kelley's words in mind, a performance festival created through collaborations between theatre artists and communities working toward social justice begins today in New York City. This has been my paid gig since August, lead producing the five projects leading up to the full-scale musical that closes the festival in June/July. I'm picking up the torch from and joining the work of a friend and compañera, Ujju Aggarwal, whose work has defined the last several years of this programming for the award-winning Foundry Theatre. Mieke Duffly joined the team as well and has been the driving force behind the first show, Active Ingredients, which goes up this week. With Luis Lopez on spanish/english interpretation, Chris Abueg on design and Vee Bravo holding down the video documentation, it's basically a family affair. Check out the exciting line-up below and find out how to reserve your tickets here.

In other zapagringo news, on Wednesday the residents of over 40 Mexican cities took to the streets demanding an end to the murderous drug war. If you haven't yet read Subcomandante Marcos' recent letter On War it's definitely worth a look now. On a different note, I also want to thank all of you who came out to El Museo del Barrio on March 12 for our big performance of Secret Survivors!

NYC... Just Like I Pictured ItApril 11 - July 9A festival of performances re-imagining the city we live in.